Canada’s Intellectual Property Firm

Jeff Leuschner writes “Practice tips to seek patent term adjustment in Canada” for IAM Patents

Principal Jeff Leuschner recently wrote an article titled “Practice tips to seek patent term adjustment in Canada” for IAM Patents.   

Patent term adjustment (PTA) has been implemented to account for unreasonable delays by the Canadian Patent Office in issuing patents. To compensate an applicant for an unreasonable delay in issuing a patent, the patent office has implemented a process to add additional patent term extending past the usual 20-year patent expiry date. 

Although PTA is now available in Canada, an adjustment will likely be difficult to obtain.  

“Canada implements PTA differently than in the U.S., and patent practitioners expect that relatively few Canadian patents will qualify for PTA.” 
- Jeff Leuschner 

However, following certain strategic patent practices may boost applicant’s chances of obtaining PTA in Canada, such as deferring examination requests and attending to all maintenance fees in a timely manner. 

To learn more practice tips, read the full article on the IAM website (subscription required): https://www.iam-media.com/article/practice-tips-seek-patent-term-adjustment-in-canada